The introduction of x-ray analysis has been one of the most significant developments in twentieth-century science and technology. The use of x-ray diffraction, spectroscopy, imaging, and other techniques has led to a profound increase in our knowledge in virtually all scientific fields. The capabilities of x-ray analysis have expanded consistently with the availability of ever more powerful sources of radiation. The standard x-ray tube has seen a relatively gradual increase in performance over many decades. Notable improvements in x-ray tube technology include the introduction of rotating anode sources and microfocus tubes. The advent of synchrotron radiation sources over the past few decades has led to a true revolution in x-ray science. Although the use of synchrotron radiation has become an extremely important research tool, the need to travel to large and extremely expensive central facilities to perform experiments during a limited time interval is a distinct disadvantage. Thus, the vast majority of work is still performed using x-ray tubes.
Many experiments are now performed using rotating anode sources which have significantly higher power capabilities than stationary anode tubes. These sources are quite expensive and can consume over ten kilowatts of input power. Recently, with the introduction of improved x-ray focusing optics, the ability to use small, low power microfocus x-ray sources to achieve x-ray beam intensities comparable to that achieved with rotating anode tubes has been demonstrated. It has been shown that a microfocus source running at a few tens of watts input power, in conjunction with focusing optics, can produce beams with a brightness comparable to a multi-kilowatt rotating anode source. Such combined small sources and collection optics will greatly expand the capabilities of x-ray analysis equipment in small laboratories. The optimization of x-ray optics for these applications is of crucial importance for realizing the potential of these laboratory instruments.